U.S. patent number 4,649,563 [Application Number 06/595,788] was granted by the patent office on 1987-03-10 for method of and means for accessing computerized data bases utilizing a touch-tone telephone instrument.
This patent grant is currently assigned to R L Associates. Invention is credited to Bernard N. Riskin.
United States Patent |
4,649,563 |
Riskin |
March 10, 1987 |
Method of and means for accessing computerized data bases utilizing
a touch-tone telephone instrument
Abstract
A conventional Touch-Tone telephone instrument is rendered
functional in the same manner and to the same extent as a computer
terminal having alpha-numeric capability, as regards transmission
of queries directed to computerized data bases. It is also rendered
functional as a recipient of information transmitted from the data
base through a telephone network to provide intelligence heretofore
made available only on the video screen of the computer terminal,
or through automatic printers. Disclosed is the substitution of the
instrument for a computer terminal and its associated video screen
or teleprinter, without requirement of modification of the
instrument, so that a subscriber gains from the use of the
telephone functions heretofore obtainable only by providing oneself
with a computer terminal and its associated screen and/or automatic
printer. The user spells out one or more words by depressing the
conventional, alpha-numerically marked keys of a Touch-Tone
telephone instrument. A computer to which the telephone is
connected by a telephone network decodes the numeric sequence
represented by depressing keys needed to spell out the selected
word or words. The computer then provides an oral response
transmitted through the telephone receiver to the caller, as
audible intelligence.
Inventors: |
Riskin; Bernard N.
(Lambertville, NJ) |
Assignee: |
R L Associates (Yardley,
PA)
|
Family
ID: |
24384680 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/595,788 |
Filed: |
April 2, 1984 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
379/93.27;
379/88.24; 379/906; 379/912; 379/913 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M
11/066 (20130101); Y10S 379/912 (20130101); Y10S
379/906 (20130101); Y10S 379/913 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04M
11/06 (20060101); H04M 011/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;179/2A,2DP,6.08,6.11
;340/825.48,825.74 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Other References
Dennis Ritchie, "Viewpoint: Research Has Always Had to Pay Its
Way," Bell Lab News, Sep. 10, 1984, p. 2. .
Graham Langley, "Telephony's Dictionary", p. 89; Telephony
Publishing Corp., Chicago, Ill., Jun. 1982. .
Smith et al, "Alphabetic Data Entry Via the Touch-Tone Pad: A
Comment," Human Factors, 13(2), Apr. 1971, pp. 189-190. .
Rabiner et al, "Digital Techniques for Computer Voice Response:
Implementation and Applications," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 64,
No. 4, Apr. 1976, pp. 416-433 (see pp. 428, 432)..
|
Primary Examiner: George; Keith E.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Sperry, Zoda & Kane
Claims
I claim:
1. The method of utilizing a telephone instrument having
transmitter and receiver components, and further including a touch
pad having individually depressable alpha-numeric keys each
representing a single number and a plurality of letters of the
alphabet, to obtain a desired piece of information as a response to
an inquiry generated at the situs of the instrument, that comprises
the steps of:
(a) spelling out one of more words by a single depression, for each
letter in a work, of only that key, and no others, that represents
said letter;
(b) transmitting the alphabetically ordered inquiry, encoded as a
numeric string, from the transmitter component of the instrument to
a computer means;
(c) at the computer means, decoding the numeric string by selecting
which of the several alphabetic characters represented by each
depressed key will combine with similarly selected characters of
the other depressed keys to form the spelled work or words,
including the following sequence:
(1) responsive to the depression of the first and second numeric
keys used, selecting only a letter or letters among those
represented by the first key, and only a letter or letters among
those represented by the second key, that can be validly combined
as a first-and-second-letter pairing in the formation of a word,
while rejecting all other letter combinations that cannot be so
paired,
(2) responsive to the depression of the third key used, selecting
only a letter or letters that can be combined with the selected
letter(s) represented by the second key as a
second-and-third-letter pairing in the formation of a word or
words, while rejecting all other letter combinations that cannot be
so paired, and
(3) continuing in like manner through the numeric string to
determine similarly acceptable consecutive letter pairings;
(d) matching the numeric string as decoded at the computer means
with a piece of information that has been previously stored therein
and is to be transmitted to the telephone instrument; and
(e) synthesizing said piece of information in voice form and
transmitting it to the receiver of the instrument.
2. The method of claim 1 including the steps of first transmitting
the inquiry to a first component of said computer means in which
basic, pre-packaged responses are stored and which produces the
responses to some of said inquiries; and secondly, if an inquiry
cannot be responded to by said first component of the computer
means, transmitting the inquiry to a second component of said
computer means having the capability of supplying responses that
cannot be made by the first computer means component.
3. The method of claim 2 in which the first component of the
computer means is an access processor.
4. The method of claim 3 in which the second component of the
computer means is a data base computer.
5. The method of claim 1 including the additional step of
transmitting billing data from the computer means to a billing
computer adapted to charge the cost of answering an inquiry to the
customer responsible for paying for use of the telephone instrument
from which an inquiry is transmitted.
6. The method of claim 1 that includes providing the computer means
in the form of a series of access processors linked in a network,
and a data base computer common to all the processors of said
network.
7. The method of claim 6 that includes Providing each of the access
processors with a store of pre-packaged responses in which each
response is matchable with an inquiry transmitted from the
telephone instrument; transmitting to the data base computer each
inquiry not adapted for response by the access processor; and
providing the data base computer with stored data adapted for
creating a response to an inquiry transmitted to the data base
computer.
8. The method of utilizing a telephone instrument having
transmitter circuitry and a receiver, said instrument being of the
touch-pad type having keys at least some of which are alpha-numeric
and bear representations of a single number and an associated
plurality of letters, to obtain a desired piece of information as a
response to an inquiry generated at the situs of the instrument,
that comprises the steps of:
(a) spelling out at least one word by momentarily depressing the
keys bearing the letters of said word, once and only once for each
letter of the word or words being spelled, in the order in which
said letters appear in the spelled word, to form a string of
letters encoded in numeric form in which each number in the string
can represent any of the plurality of letters found on the same key
as that number, and in which the encoded word represents an
inquiry;
(b) transmitting said encoded string to a computer means;
(c) utilizing the computer means to compare the order in which the
numbers appear in said string to select those letters associated
with the respective numbers that will form the word spelled out by
depression of the alpha-numeric keys and enter it in the computer
means as a complete inquiry, including the following sequence:
(1) responsive to the depression of the first and second numeric
keys used, selecting only a letter or letters among those
represented by the first key, and only a letter or letters among
those represented by the second key, that can be validly combined
as a first-and-second-letter Pairing in the formation of a word,
while rejecting all other letter combinations that cannot be so
paired,
(2) responsive to the depression of the third key used, selecting
only a letter or letters that can be combined with the selected
letter(s) represented by the second key as a second-and-third
letter pairing in the formation of a word or words, while rejecting
all other letter combinations that cannot be so paired, and
(3) continuing in like manner through the numeric string to
determine similarly acceptable consecutive letter pairings;
(d) matching up, within the computer means, a string of pulses that
together from a correct response to the inquiry;
(e) synthesizing the response string of pulses to voice form;
and
(f) transmitting the synthesized voice form to the receiver of the
telephone to provide the user with an intelligible audio response
to the inquiry.
9. The method of claim 8 in which initial transmission of the
encoded inquiry to the computer means is screened thereby for
qualification of the inquiry as one capable of a response utilizing
pre-constituted, ready-to-use data.
10. The method of claim 9 including the step of having the computer
means, if the inquiry does not so qualify, draw upon a data base in
which a correct response is formulated according to the content of
the inquiry.
11. The method of claim 10 in which the step of voice-synthesizing
the response is carried out with respect to each and every inquiry
transmitted to the computer means.
12. The method of utilizing a telephone instrument, of a type that
will enter a transmitting mode by depressing alphanumeric keys each
of which represents one single-digit number and a plurality of
letters of the alphabet, said instrument having transmitting
circuitry and an audio receiver in which the transmitting component
substitutes for a computer terminal in the sense of transmitting an
encoded inquiry and the receiver substitutes for a display screen
and printer in the sense of providing a response to the inquiry,
that includes the steps of:
(a) spelling out one or more words by a single depression, for each
letter in a word, of only that key, and no others, that represents
said letter;
(b) transmitting the alphabetically ordered inquiry encoded as a
numeric string to an access processor;
(c) at the access processor, decoding the numeric string by
selecting which of the several alphabetic characters represented by
each depressed key will combine with similarly selected characters
of the other depressed keys to form the spelled word or words,
including the following sequence:
(1) responsive to the depression of the first and second numeric
keys used, selecting only a letter or letters among those
represented by the first key, and only a letter or letters among
those represented by the second key, that can be validly combined
as a first-and-second-letter pairing in the formation of a word,
while rejecting all other letter combinations that cannot be so
paired,
(2) responsive to the depression of the third key used, selecting
only a letter or letters that can be combined with the selected
letter(s) represented by the second key as a second-and-third
letter pairing in the formation of a word or words, while rejecting
all other letter combinations that cannot be so paired, and
(3) continuing in like manner through the numeric string to
determine similarly acceptable consecutive letter pairings;
(d) determining if the numeric string, as decoded at the access
processor is subject to match-up with any one response selectable
from a memory bank of preformulated reponses stored at the access
processor;
(e) if a response can be provided by the access processor,
voice-synthesizing the response and transmitting the same to the
inquirer via the audio receiver;
(f) if a response cannot be formulated by the access processor,
transmitting the inquiry to a data base computer for formulation of
a response;
(g) in the event that the response is formulated by the data base
computer, transmitting the response of the data base computer to
the access processor; and
(h) at the access processor, voice-synthesizing the response of the
data base computer for transmission to the caller via the audio
receiver.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and in
a more particular sense relates to those systems in which a
computer is connectable through a telephone network to remote
locations from which queries can be directed to the computer, and
to which the computer transmits a suitable response.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Typically, at present a computer-stored data base is accessed
through a telephonic communications network, through the medium of
remotely located computer terminals having in association therewith
display screens and/or teleprinters. Commonly, one keyboards,
through the terminal, a coded, alpha-numeric query, in order to
transmit questions and requests for information from the remotely
located data base. From the data base, a response is transmitted
via a data base distributor to the computer terminal in
alpha-numeric format. These responses are typically displayed upon
a screen at the site of the terminal and/or are automatically
printed at that location.
The normal procedure is to have the computer terminal connected to
a telephone line which can be linked to an access processor of some
network system. The data base distributor is also connected to the
same network or to a network which can be interconnected with the
network in which the telephone line has been accessed.
Information or a query can be sent from the computer terminal
through the telephone line link to the network through some access
processor. The query is addressed so that it will be guided through
an egress port of the network to the data base distributor and the
data base computer. Information is sent to the computer terminal of
the individual making the inquiry via the same route, but in the
response case, the information flows in the opposite direction.
That is, it flows from the data base computer and data base
distributor to the computer terminal making the inquiry.
As presently constituted, the computer terminal provides two
functions necessary for information exchanges between data base
distributors and users. These are an alpha-numeric keyboard for
input and a video screen or teleprinter for output.
It is clear that the present arrangement has the disadvantage in
that it is operative only if the subscriber or user of the central
data base has, as regular equipment at his location, a complete
computer terminal interfaced with the telephone network, for input
to the data base; and a display screen and/or automatic printer,
for receiving the intelligence transmitted in response to a query
addressed to the computer in which the data base is stored.
In these circumstances, there is obviously a minimal market
penetration, in that certainly the overwhelming majority of
individual consumers, especially residential consumers and those
operating small businesses, do not have computer terminals and the
associated receiving equipment, interfaced with a computer through
the medium of a telephone network. While the computers presently
exist in which information is stored that the ordinary consumer
desires to have, along with telephone networks that extend into the
consumer's home or small business, the computer terminal, and the
screen and/or printer, are not customarily found in the ordinary
residence or small business establishment.
It has been heretofore been proposed, in this regard, to utilize a
telephone instrument having a touch pad as a form of computer
terminal, to provide access to a computerized data base. Heretofore
it has been proposed that the touch pad be modified substantially
and/or operated in a manner that requires double-punching of the
keys or other relatively complex input modes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims to obviate the disadvantages that have
been noted in connection with the prior art. To this end,
summarized briefly, the invention utilizes a completely
conventional touch pad of a telephone instrument, requiring no
masking of the pad, and requiring no requirement for
double-punching of keys, or other complex modes of inputting
information into the telephone network to provide access to the
computerized data base. Rather, the invention involves no more than
a simple impression of a word or words upon the touch pad, by
selecting the keys which have alphabetic indicia that permit
spelling out of the legend that is to be transmitted to the data
base.
Keyboarding of a word or words into the telephone network in the
manner described above results, so far as the computer is
concerned, in its receiving a numeric string of impulses. The
computer, in this connection, will be programmed to translate the
numeric string so received into an alphabetic sequence that
represents the only word or words capable of being analogized to
the specific numeric sequence received by the computer.
The computer having encoded the numeric string into a sensible or
intelligent alphabetic mode, is now adapted, through its program,
to respond to that specific, alphabetic mode by transmitting an
oral response audible through the receiver of the caller's
telephone.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
While the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly
claimed in the concluding portions herein, a preferred embodiment
is set forth in the following detailed description which may be
best understood when read in connection with the accompanying
drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing schematically the relationship of
the telephone instrument when interfaced with associated computer
components; and
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation illustrating a national map
and the manner in which a system according to the present invention
can be extended on a nationwide basis.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIG. 1, the reference numeral 10 designates a
completely conventional key pad of an ordinary telephone instrument
of the TOUCH-TONE.RTM. type. The telephone instrument of which key
pad 10 is a component also includes transmitter 12 and receiver
14.
Designated as 16 is an access processor, which itself is a computer
station connected between the telephone instrument and a main frame
computer located at a suitable geographic location which as shown
in FIG. 2 can be anywhere in the nation.
Telephone instrument components 10, 12, 14 are part of a telephone
instrument generally designated 18 in FIG. 2. Telephone instruments
18 are connected to access processors suitably located across the
nation as part of a national network. All telephone instruments in
a particular region feed into a regional access processor, which in
turn is connected to a main frame computer 20 provided with
suitable data bases 22.
Essentially, this comprises the complete system. As indicated
above, each and every component of the system is, per se,
conventional and it is of particular importance that no
modification of the telephone instrument, in any way, is
required.
The usefulness of the system is found in the fact that it
incorporates in a completely conventional telephone instrument the
capability of substitution of the instrument for a computer
terminal having alpha-numeric capability. Considering that only a
comparatively few residential or small business subscribers have,
at present, terminals of this type, the present invention enables a
greatly expanded number of potential users to have access to data
base distributors. In this system, the telephone instrument becomes
the computer terminal, in that the key pad of the instrument
assumes the encoding and transmitting function of a computer
terminal keyboard. A response from the computer becomes an audible
message addressed to the calling telephone and received by the user
through the receiver of the telephone instrument. The telephone
instrument receiver in this way assumes the function now discharged
by a display screen and/or automatic printer located at the site of
the computer terminal from which the inquiry came.
As an example, suppose it is desired to input the word P-A-T-E-N-T
using a key pad of the telephone as part of a data base inquiry.
Using a computer terminal the word PATENT would be typed on the
keyboard. Using a key pad telephone, the pad keys have letters
superimposed upon numbers according to the following scheme:
______________________________________ ALPHABETIC NUMERIC
______________________________________ A B C 2 D E F 3 G H I 4 J K
L 5 M N O 6 P R S 7 T U V 8 W X Y 9
______________________________________
In this scheme, the letters Q and Z are assigned to the numeric
digit 1. The numerics 0 and 1 do not now have an alphabet assigned
to them. In addition to the numerics 0-9, there are two keys
labelled * and # which do not have any alphabetic assignment. They
are hereby assigned as "space" and "end transmit" respectively.
So, to express the word P-A-T-E-N-T, the numeric keys 7-2-8-3-6-8-#
are depressed. It is postulated that computer intelligence can
decode this numeric string back to the original alphabetic
string.
In the first place, a trivial solution to the decoding, is to have
the computer, for a limited set of data, convert all expected
alphabetic strings to numeric strings and store them in a file.
Then, receipt of a numeric string causes lookup in the numeric
string file and the conversion to the alphabetic string is thus
achieved.
In the case of a duplication such that two (or more) identical
numeric strings resulted from different alphabetic strings, the
computer is programmed to ask the user which alphabetic string was
intended.
The concept of programming a computer to speak to the user is
currently implemented by use of a chip which translates from data
stored in the computer memory to intelligible speech.
Another approach to decoding the numeric string back to its
original alphabetic string is to employ algorithms which might be
used in breaking military codes. It is to be noted that military
code breaking was one of the earliest tasks assigned to computers.
Computers are able to break codes which military users desire to
keep encrypted. It follows that computers have a much easier task
breaking codes that users desire to have broken.
Taking the example of P-A-T-E-N-T, encoded as 7-2-8-3-6-8-#, the
computer has the task of examining the numeric string to determine
its original alphabetic string. This is easily accomplished by
taking advantage of the redundancy inherent in the English
language, particularly with respect to the usage of vowels vs.
consonants.
The possible alphabetic combinations resulting from the numeric
string are derived as follows:
______________________________________ Numeric 7-2-8-3-6-8-#
______________________________________ Alpha- P A T D M T betic R B
U E N U equivalents S C V F O V
______________________________________
The computer, in accordance with the invention, is programmed to
create the table of alphabetic equivalents, as above, and then to
scan the table from left to right discarding all the impossible
combinations. For example, the string beginning with the numeric 7
equated to P-R-S results for the first two letters in P-A, P-B,
P-C; R-A, R-B, R-C; and S-A, S-B, S-C. Of these nine combinations,
clearly only P-A, R-A, and S-A are admissable strings. The others
are impossible and so forth, across the possible alphabetic string
combinations corresponding to the numeric pair 7-2.
As the computer proceeds across the numeric string, two letters at
a time pairing numerics first-second, second-third, third-fourth,
fourth-fifth, etc. discarding all impossible strings, only a very
few strings remain which are possibly valid with respect to the
English language.
For example, for the word "PATENT", other possible strings are
RATENT or SATENT. Impossible strings are RBTENT or SBTENT, etc.
After discarding all impossible strings, the computer evaluates the
remaining possible strings to deduce what the questioner had in
mind.
After deducing what the questioner had in mind, i.e., selecting
from among the possible strings, the computer checks its memory
versus those strings which are relevant to the phone number at
hand. If after reviewing possible strings which resulted in
redundant possible strings, e.g., PATENT vs SATENT or RATENT and
finding more than one in the data set of allowable inputs to the
specific phone number, the computer will then be instructed to
verbally ask the questioner which word is meant. That is to say for
example, the computer speaks to the inquirer and says "Do you mean
`PATENT` or `SATENT`? If you mean `PATENT` push the number 1. If
you mean `SATENT` push the number 2."
Another relevant piece of technology is a "valid word dictionary"
of upwards of 50,000 words which is a common device in
word-processing systems. The dictionary is used to catch spelling
errors by assuming that a correctly spelled word will be in the
dictionary whereas an incorrectly spelled word will not. This would
be useful in sorting out a syntactically valid alphabetic string
such as R-A-T-E-N-T from actual valid words.
To summarize the above, the computer will have the ability to
distinguish from a given numeric string, the alphabetic string
which the caller had in mind. The computer achieves this by
analysis of the redundancy in the English language and by the
analysis of the closed data set of subject matter appropriate to
the given telephone number which was called.
In addition to the computer's ability to distinguish the meaning of
a numeric string and to search its memory for those alphabetic
strings appropriate to the given telephone number, another
capability is achievable by the computer due to the nature of the
telephone system. When a telephone call is placed, the telephone
central has the ability to detect the caller's telephone number.
This is why automatic dialing (without operator assistance) is
possible and "AMA" (Automatic Message Accounting) can be achieved
by the computer.
The telephone company has in its computer memory banks the
geographical location of every central office. For example, for
telephone number 609/397-2619, the telephone company computer has a
pair of horizontal and vertical constants called H-V which are
equivalent to the latitude and longitude correct to about one
minute of the central office at 609/397. Therefore, when a call is
placed, the computer knows the geographical location of the source.
So, for many kinds of information bank questions, such as, "Where
is the nearest dry cleaner?", the computer can answer without any
specific input by the caller because it knows the caller's
geographic location as a function of the telephone exchange from
which the call was placed. This analysis of geographic location and
request for information represents a wide range of currently
implemented information services such as dealer information
supplied in response to "Where-to-buy-it" questions.
In addition to the telephone company's knowledge of the geographic
location of the source of the telephone call, the situation of the
telephone company with respect to spinning off its operating
companies provides an opportunity for independent information
service providers.
The telephone company currently provides information services
called "936" or "Dial-It" services, such as, weather (936-1212) and
time (936-1818). These services provide the same number nation-wide
for a given service. That is, 936-1212 is the number in New York,
San Francisco or Philadelphia for the weather. Therefore, having a
nationally advertised telephone number which is constant throughout
the country, one can have national advertising referenced to the
data bases which are provided by the service.
For example, analogous to the weather service and time service, the
invention permits establishment of a telephone service to provide
current stock quotations. It is assumed that this type of service
would be provided by organizations not associated with the
telephone operating companies. It is assumed that the operating
companies will deliver a service of a "936" nature, bill the
caller, and remit to the information provider a portion of the
charge made to the caller. As an example, "936-FILM" could be a
service to provide callers with the name, address and show time of
the nearest movie theater which is playing a movie whose title the
caller would keyboard in the numeric fashion. Perhaps the most
important application of this technique would be to provide an
interface between information providers and those people who do not
have a computer terminal. Such providers may include, for example,
a company supplying stock quotations; or perhaps a company that
will advise the nearest location where a particular movie is
playing.
As an interface between the callers without computer terminals and
the information providers, this computer system receives calls from
the "TOUCH-TONE".RTM. telephones and translates them into data
which appears to the information provider as if it had been
received from a computer terminal. The data is then sent along to
the designated information provider company. When the information
provider company provides the output data in digital format which
is intended for transmission to a computer terminal, the computer
system receives such data and translates it into a vocal response
back to the caller. For example, if a caller on a telephone were to
ask the name of the nearest theater playing "Casablanca", this data
would be relayed to the information provider that has previously
put up the data bank. The answer, e.g., Rialto, is provided
digitally by the data base owner and is intended for transmission
to a computer terminal. Instead of going to a computer terminal,
the characters R-I-A-L-T-0 would be sent to the proper node of the
interface computer network system and there transformed into the
vocal response "RIALTO" which would then be relayed via telephone
to the caller.
A problem arises in the use of a system of this nature to answer
inquiries generated by advertising, such as, "Where to buy an
Arrow.RTM. Shirt". The computer can respond, for example, "J. C.
Penney, Quakerbridge Mall" in response to the keyboarding of
"Arrow.RTM. Shirt" (2-7-7-6-9-*-7-4-4-7-8-#) without any difficulty
but the problem is that the advertiser wants to know which
advertising medium generated the inquiry (for purposes of
advertising dollar allocation).
This is readily solved in practicing the invention by programming
the computer to initiate a dialogue such as:
Computer: "Thank you for requesting the name of your nearest Arrow
Shirt dealer. Please keyboard the name of the medium in which you
saw the advertisement."
Caller: "TIME MAGAZINE".(8-4-6-3-*-6-2-4-2-1-4-6-
3-#)
The computer is thereby enabled to decode the string for the name
of the medium and provide the data for the advertiser.
An advantage of this system is substitution low-cost digital data
transmission such as is available from several X.25 networks, for
expensive voice transmission. The usage of voice-to-digital
computer network nodes allows substitution of digital data
transmission for inward WATS for information dissemination.
This discussion has assumed that a telephone having a key pad is
required to communicate with the system. If such is not available,
hand-held tone generators are available at relatively low cost.
In the event that keying errors are made on the tone pads, the
computer system would be able to perceive the error quickly.
Various techniques currently employed in the telecommunications
industry would be used to decipher the caller's intent.
One procedure, known as "answer back analysis", can detect errors
and determine the caller's intent in over 99% of the errors. In
case of a dubious decision, the computer can always ask the caller
his intent.
This disclosure deals with being able to have the telephone supply
numeric inputs that can be interpreted by a computer to be
alpha-numeric without any prior operator training. Also, no special
training such as multiple keying of the telephone pad is required
for alpha-numeric.
It will be necessary to add a speech synthesizer to each of the
conventional access processors, in order to have computer generated
voice output back to the telephone that made the original query.
Thus, the access processor will consist of the following
sections:
Disc file with "Banner" messages
Concentrator/Deconcentrator
Multiplexer/Demultiplexer
Protocol Conversion
Speech synthesizer to serve a number of ports
Capability of handling several thousand ports
Packet assembler/disassembler
Referring again to the drawing, in a typical situation the input
message is directed from the telephone instrument (and in
particular the transmitting components thereof) to an access
processor 16. The access processor reads the pulses transmitted and
converts them to a digital protocol that is, the analog waveform of
the transmitted pulses is converted to a digital form in which it
becomes a stream of binary "bits", known in the computer art as
"digital protocol". The conversion is effected by circuitry well
known in the computer art and basic to present-day computer
structure, in which such conversions are routinely made in the
analog waveforms received from the keyboards of computer terminals.
At the access processor there is also provided local data storage
identified in FIG. 1 as "response storage" and designated in that
figure of the drawing.. If the inquiry is such that it can be
answered by utilizing the data maintained at the local access
processor storage, the access processor conducts a dialogue, that
is, it responds to the inquiry, utilizing pre-packaged messages
from the local audio storage. This utilizes a voice synthesizer 28
which is converted from the digital message protocol, and is
transmitted from the access processor to the receiver of the
telephone instrument.
In the event that response to the inquiry cannot be made utilizing
local storage of data at the access processor, the access processor
transmits the message in digital form to the main frame computer,
via the network shown in FIG. 2. Here there is called into use the
concentrator/deconcentrator; or the multiplexer/demultiplexer; or
the packet assembler/disassembler.
With the digitally encoded message transmitted from the access
processor to the data base computer 20, there is transmitted the
calling number, and the called number. These go along with the
numerically coded inquiry data.
Upon receipt of this message at the computer, the computer, by
reference to its data bank or base 22, transmits alphabetic data to
the access processor for conversion by voice synthesizer 28 to the
synthetic voice mode as a response to the input query. And, the
computer may also transmit coded data to control the dialogue with
reference to local audio storage at the access processor.
The computer, at the same time, as shown in FIG. 1, transmits data
to the telephone company's billing computer 24, which receives this
data and utilizes it for the purpose of generating a bill
chargeable to the subscriber who has made the inquiry.
While particular embodiments of this invention have been shown in
the drawings and described above, it will be apparent, that many
changes may be made in the form, arrangement and positioning of the
various elements of the combination. In consideration thereof it
should be understood that preferred embodiments of this invention
disclosed herein are intended to be illustrative only and not
intended to limit the scope of the invention.
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